After checking dozens of bands from the list for new material, I decided to actually try to look for some new ones, and then wondered whether I could add another post to this series dedicated to Ukrainian bands, the first one that I listened to, Lunarway, being a very good sign. They claim to have been around since 2016 but seem to have only actually released their first material in December and, in order to make the usual two picks, I’ll just link to Lost in Memories and Streams of Time, which should prove that they’re right up my alley and surprisingly solid.
On the other hand, Gasoline Guns are not what I’d normally go for, but I found myself liking Legends, which is the song that they released some months ago. The vocals are quite harsh, but they’re not growls, the overall sound is enjoyable, and I’d say that they’re also improving. Admittedly, I made it easy for myself and only listened to a few older songs, from which I’ll select Blaze Up to link to, but I’m thinking that I’d have probably tried to look for something else if I’d have listened to that first. But that’s probably a matter of personal preference and those who actually enjoy the genre will likely have a different opinion.
As for the last band, that’s Majesty of Revival and I’d say that their sound has gotten worse, Infinity, which is the “proper” song in English from the EP they released last year, not leaving much of an impression and having a few brief growls as well, while I found somewhat more to like on a few of their older songs, Wolfheart probably being the best example. So it’s not that they’d have caught my attention otherwise, but it’s enough to allow me to complete this rushed post, which is actually the shortest one from the series, and stick to the theme.
I guess it’s time for another post in this series that’s not only rushed but also not exactly deserving of the title, because I’ve known of all three bands for a long time. But, even if only one of them has an actual new album, at least they all released some new material recently, so it is fair to include them in such a post, those new songs being the new finds, which I actually only found and listened to today.
I’ll start with Morlas Memoria, since they’re the ones with the new full album, from which I just found Lost Expedition, which will therefore be my first pick. It’s actually on a different account, but it claims to be official, so I hope it won’t end up vanishing. Either way, for the second pick, the older song, I’ll go with Mine of Pictures. While the vocals remain good, I prefer this older song over the new one, but without having listened to anything else from the new album, I can’t make any comments about any differences in their overall sound, and the few songs which had been officially posted in the past made me check quite a number of times to see whether they had anything new that would allow me to include them in such a post.
Next is Winter in Eden, who recently released an EP, from which they posted Silence, which is just a lovely song that I’d say marks yet another improvement for them, and quite a significant one, despite going through what seems to have been a break and changes. But they were improving even before, so the second pick will be another song that’s not exactly old, Social Fake, which comes from the album with the same name that was released in 2022 and some eight years after their early material. Not that what little I listened to from said early material was bad either, far from it, but I preferred that song to those earlier ones.
And then there’s Symfobia. Their recent release is a single song, Liar, but it’s a solid, powerful piece that their new vocalist contributes quite a lot to, and I’m not even bothered by the guitar solo, which is unusual. And it’s just that powerful sound that made me go with a contrasting one, From the Ashes, as the second pick, the choice being hard to make otherwise. So I’ll just say that they’re a good band that I’m glad seems to finally return and I hope they’ll finally release another album, or at least more songs, one way or another.
While still rushed, the year’s first post from this series is at least deserving of the title, since all three bands are actual new finds for me, even if they’re not also new bands and their members tend to be experienced, some of them very much so and with many other projects under their belts. On the other hand, the post is unusual because all three are power metal bands with male vocals, and it basically started forming after I happened to stumble into the first band and kept wondering why had I marked another one, which I had found some time before, as the first one that I meant to include in the next such post, because I listened to several of their songs again and didn’t like any. So I removed that other band from the list completely and began to check what YouTube was recommending as I listened to the first new find’s songs, quickly picking the second one and then deciding on the third after listening to mere parts of one song from a few others, looking for one that caught my attention right away.
That first band is Majestica, and while they have an upcoming album, scheduled to be released on February 7, and they released two songs from it already, I liked A New Beginning better, and while it seems like it won’t be included on this album, at least based on what I’m seeing at the moment, it was released last summer, so it counts as a recent song. And the second pick, the older song, would be Night Call Girl. I should note that the band existed under a different name for two decades, but I didn’t even check what was released before the change, so I’m just talking about Majestica when I say that they have solid, clear vocals, catchy choruses and good production values. I definitely still dislike those instrumental bridges where the electric guitars are left to punch through, but I guess that’s a staple of the genre and hard to avoid, and I’ve heard much, much worse than what’s in their songs from this point of view…
The second band is New Horizon, and the first pick is Apollo, even that instrumental bridge striking me as at least fitting in this song, coming after that recording of the countdown. As for the second pick, I’ll go with their debut song, We Unite. They changed vocalists last year and I’d say that the result is quite an improvement, and the overall sound seems better as well on their second album, even if there is still something that bothers me to some extent on some of the songs that I listened to.
As for The Ferrymen, it seems more like what’s called a supergroup, and the sheer number of other projects that its members have under their belts is staggering, so their experience is unquestionable. It might, on the other hand, make one question their ability to commit, but they seem to be sticking to this one project, which doesn’t seem to have had any changes in lineup since the first album, released in 2017. Either way, the first pick, from the album that was just released yesterday, is Mother Unholy. As for the second pick, I’ll go with Still Standing Up, which is actually just from that first album that I already mentioned. These two may be the most powerful of the ones that I listened to, but I’d say that the vocals make all of their songs impart a sense of determination, beyond the confidence that’s to be expected from such experienced singers.
This will be worse than yet another rushed post from this series, because I couldn’t stay on-line and pick an older song for one of the bands this evening, so I had to edit the post before going to bed in order to list that second pick, at which point I also added the brief comments. So I’ll start with that band, which is Seven Kingdoms and which I’ve known about for many years but never got around to including in one of these posts. But now they just released a new EP, and my first pick will be its title song, The Square. As for the older song, I’ll go with Empty Eyes. Since they’re improving with time, I was tempted to go with something newer, but this seems more appropriate. And I must say that I don’t like those long instrumental bridges, and the songs pretty much have the same structure, but I can’t deny the quality, and for several years the vocals have been particularly solid.
Next comes Poema, which is a band from Ukraine that I recently stumbled into, and one thing that’s notable in itself is the fact that they’re not only still active, but all of their songs seem to have been released since the start of the war. However, I don’t have any link that I’d normally care to include for them, since they don’t seem to be on Metal Archives yet and otherwise just have a YouTube channel where they posted less than you’d expect for a new band and an Instagram page that at the time I’m writing this gives an error. But they recently released an actual video, for Circus of Death, so that will be my first pick. As for the second one, I’ll go with The Void. And these songs show that I’m definitely not just including them as a tiny show of support for Ukrainians, because they sound quite nice, and at least these particular ones even seem more polished than you’d expect, considering the circumstances.
As for the third band, that’s Dawn of Destiny and they’re about to release an album later this month. But they have already released a few songs from it, including my first pick, which is Alive. As for the second pick, I initially wanted to make it easy for myself and only check the few other songs officially posted by their current label, but when I saw that just one, To Hell, seems to have been officially posted by a previous label, I changed my mind and modified what I initially posted minutes later, making that my second pick, because it actually seems different from those newer songs in the sense that it’s not just the chorus that stands out, being better than the other parts of the songs. But, even when it comes to those newer songs, there’s no question about them being good enough to include in such a post.
This is, of course, another rushed post from this series, written in order to have a second post this week, and this time around it’s really frustrating, because another band that I considered including here is releasing a new song in a few days, and they don’t have others released within the past year, so it’d have been really wrong to just pick some old songs at this point and I had to set them aside for another time. And then I ended up wondering why another band was on the list at all and found my original idea of making a post for bands from Germany that are already on the list and which have released new material within the past year pretty much impossible, so the third band ended up being quite the opposite.
Either way, the one band that I clearly wanted to include here is Lyriel. In fact, I’ve been meaning to include them in one of these posts for many, many years, but they hadn’t released any new material in almost a decade… Until recently, when they released Odyssey of Dreams, so that has to be my first pick. And, while I’m sure that I listened to more of their songs a long time ago, now I made it easy for myself and only listened to the few older songs that also have videos, going with Leverage as the second pick. Now, while Odyssey of Dreams obviously does, I want to see whether, after such a long time between releases, their new material can at least match the level of their old songs overall… And whether they’ll do something about the fact that, at least based on the few that I listened to today, their songs tend to start rather poorly, so you need to wait out the first part, and you should, the very first impression being unlikely to do them any justice.
Next, Sacred Groove is another German band which released some new material recently, The Secret of the Morning Sun being their newest song, which I’ll select as my first pick. They’re not something to write home about, and the vocals definitely need to be better, but what’s somewhat odd is that on at least a few of their older songs they seem to be, and I’m going to give The Other Side as an example, maybe even more so because the sound quality leaves quite a lot to be desired, and yet it’s still significantly better than the new material, at least in my opinion. It may be a matter of focusing on their strengths, in which case I wonder why don’t they do that far more often.
As for the third band, that’s Silent Wings and I was saying that it’s quite the opposite of what should be included in such posts not just because I stumbled into them many, many years ago and they don’t have any new material released in over a decade, but because they also split up over a decade ago, leaving behind all of two songs, Hic et Nunc and Into the Void, so those obviously have to be my two picks. They did record more and were just about to release an EP, but at the last moment they announced that they won’t be able to do so, because one of the band members left and blocked the others from releasing songs that he was involved in. And shortly after that, after releasing those two songs, the band split up, while their vocalist stopped posting covers on her channel later that same year. But those two songs are great, even more so when they seem to come from what was a new band, with members with little experience, so I think that they shouldn’t be forgotten and it’s a real pity that they couldn’t find a way to continue, in some form or another.
